CRLT101

Dear Dr. Hartman,

I really enjoyed today's class! Prior to today, I would be reserved in class discussions. Occasionaly I'll nod my head or read something (not much) from my daybook. But today sparked an interesting conversation. I felt really comfortable with discussing my opinions about the rap industry. I'm not a big fan of rap because of all the cursing and degradation of women. I liked how everybody had very strong opinions. But one of the many topics that we had a lot of different opinions about was: Why must a rapper only rap about who they would like to have sex with or who they want to kill next? My opinion is if they are supposedly not doing these acts, why are they rapping about it?! Bad thoughts lead to bad habits. Although I'm not a fan of rap, I'm a huge advocate of Hip-Hop. One may think that there's no difference between the two, but really there is a big difference. Hip-Hop is old school (the 90's period). Hip-Hop told stories. They talked about the drug life and the women, as if they were observing their communities. These days rap(s) do not tell stories. It talks about the crime and women, but they are participating in such activities. The following rappers have been in jail at some point in their career: T.I.,LIL WAYNE,50 CENT,PLIES,BIRDMAN,RICK ROSS,T-PAIN,LIL KIM,TRINA,JAY-Z,LIL BOOSIE,LIL JON,LUDACRIS,BIGGIE,TUPAC,SNOOP DOGG,DJ KHALED,DJ UNK,FABULOUS,GUCCI MANE,FAT JOE,YUNG JOC,YOUNG JEEZY,YOUNG DRO,DR.DRE,EMINEM,CASSIDY,JADAKISS. But yet they are "just rapping about day to day life". If that was the case they wouldn't have been sent to jail sometime during their career. If I was a parent in 2011, I wouldn't encourage my children to listen to rap. Another thing is that Hip-Hop was more for a general audience. Any age, gender, race, or class would enjoy Hip-Hop. Check out these lyrics from a very well known theme song that stills air on T.V. today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5-i9NH0tM. These lyrics tell a simple story about a guy who was shipped to his relatives' house and he was rapping about it. These days you don't hear stories such as that. Here is another clear example of stories in Hip-Hop http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/slick-rick-lyrics/children_s-story-lyrics.html. This explains a boy who did one little thing that ultimately flipped his life upside down. In rap it's the other way around; rappers are rapping about the actions they already did. Another question that started a heated debate within my circle was: Why are more white people interested in rap? I asked this question because I was very curious. In "Birth of a Nation", whites did not want to act like blacks or do the things blacks were doing. But today, more and more whites are listening to well- known artists such as Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Drake, and Busta Rhymes, just to name a few. Some of my peers said whites are interested in it because they are not familiar with the crime, degradation of women, etc, and it is attractive to them. A lot of opinions were shared. One even said that more blacks are listening to country and/or rock&roll. I believe both is true because we want to explore other communities. Since neither race grew up with the other race's experiences, we're fascinated by it.